Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and cultureSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and culture
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
Although we may thus accept Terrananus as a disciple of Palladius,
Servanus has no claim to be regarded as possessing the same character.
Fordun tells us ‘In the History of Saint Kentigern we read that Servanus
was the disciple of the reverend bishop Palladius, almost in the very
earliest days of the Scottish Church;’ and again, ‘On his arrival in
Scotia he (Palladius) found Saint Servanus there, and called him to work
in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth; and when afterwards the latter
was sufficiently imbued with the teaching of the church, Palladius
appointed him his suffragan over all the nation of the Scots. So runs
the story in that work.’ These passages are quoted from a Life of
Kentigern, a fragment of which, containing the passage in question, is
still preserved.[64] In this life the birth of Kentigern is placed at
Culross, where he is received and educated by Servanus. Kentigern died
in extreme old age in 603, which places his birth towards the beginning
of the sixth century; but unless the life of Servanus had extended
beyond the century, he could not have been found in Scotland by
Palladius if he arrived in 430. It would be just possible that he might
have been a disciple, were it not that the Life of Servanus has also
been preserved. It is contained in the same MS. with one of the lives of
Kentigern, and seems to have been recognised by the church of Glasgow as
the life of the same Servanus who was his instructor;[65] but when we
turn to this life, we do not find in it the least mention of either
Palladius or Kentigern. Servanus is there brought in contact with
Adamnan, abbot of Iona, who flourished in the seventh century; and he
founds the church of Culross in the reign of Brude, king of the Picts,
who filled the throne from 697 to 706 in the latter part of the life of
Adamnan.[66] It is obvious, therefore, that there is a great anachronism
in placing this Servanus as the instructor of Kentigern, and that he in
reality belongs to the century after his death. We are thus left with
Terrananus or Ternan alone, as having: any claim to belong to this
period, and the dedications to him show that the field of his labours
was the territory of the southern Picts, who are said by Bede to have
been converted some time before by Ninian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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